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The following review is my personal opinion, how I experienced and thought about the anime Uma Musume. It is not an attempt to convey objective facts, as one would find in a report, on the contrary, it is my opinion and how I think about the anime, it is purely subjective, not less and not more.
Story
The main plot is nothing completely new but the horse-girl aspect and the rivalries were entertaining, and, in their best moments, even dramatic. The humor felt sometimes off, especially when it relied on the team-members: They felt gimmicky and tacked-on until much later in the anime where they finally got the chance to establish a relation with the viewer, but this was too little too late. The direction and series-composition put on the shoes before the pants, in this regard. The races themselves were well-staged, created proper excitement, and were often the highlight of each episode. One aspect I could neither understand nor accept though, until the very end, was the performing-of-a-song aspect after each race: It never received proper attention to justify its existence in the story, aside from episode 2, and it also made no sense whether we compare it to reality, where such a thing doesn't exist in horse-racing, or to what we learned from the Uma Musume universe itself: The girls are professional athletes, they train running, every day, and nothing else, that's their profession, singing and dancing is not part of their training, and yet the story expects them to be able to sing and dance on a professional level. Try to make sense of that. Hint: It doesn't make any sense at all. Speaking about not making sense, it could be argued that there are no antagonists in Uma Musume, for even the leader of the rival team is begrudgingly supporting our girls and our team. Were we to judge them as actual antagonists, we would not find much antagonizing about them, which was disappointing and leads us to an overall 6.5/10.
Characters
The main character may be steeped in various cliches but has, despite that, enough individuality, visually and in terms of personality, in order to be recognizable in the vast sea of anime characters. There is also an interesting dynamic between the two main characters, which, for the most part, is carrying the main plot. Among the supporting characters, the team-members of Special Week (the name of our main character) feel flat, in their best moments, and slightly aggravating, in their worst moments. They could have added to the anime if a little bit more attention and time in the spotlight would have been dedicated to them. This actually does happen towards the end of the anime, but, as previously mentioned, it is too little too late. The rival horse-girls though are diverse, memorable, and entertaining enough to justify an overall score of 7.5/10.
Visuals
The character designs are quirky, tasteful, and covered with numerous lovely details. The attention to detail is also noticeable if we check out the backgrounds, the props (carrots, carrots, carrots), the outfits, and hair accessories of the girls. The designers did a great job in this regard. Some horse-girls though lack a little bit of visual individuality, and can be hard to tell apart until later on. That may also be attributed to the sheer number of girls which the viewer has to become familiar with. The visual quality is slightly above average with the odd scene and background here and there dropping in quality while the horse-girls themselves are well drawn, but not enough to warrant an overall Very Good rating: 7.5/10.
Audio
I experienced serious issues with the sound-mix where effects (steps, ringing, doors) and background noises (crowd cheering) were twice as loud as they are supposed to be, which made for a dangerous and unpleasant experience with headphones. This actually stopped being an issue from episode 9 and onward, but such a blunder can simply not be defended. The soundtrack is mostly invisible, which doesn't have to be an issue for music that is meant to stay primarily in the background, but there were, with a few exceptions, almost no noteworthy moments at all. In the end, it managed to be below average, and that is quite an achievement in itself. The opening song is unremarkable too and leaves us with a scent of no-risk, no originality, but the ending song makes up for it with a nice melody that is actually catchy and well-fitting: 5/10.
Enjoyment
Despite the flaws and letdowns with story and sound, I enjoyed most of my time with Uma Musume: The charm of the main characters, paired with the cute visuals, managed to overshadow many shortcomings: 7/10.
Summary
A weak start was followed by a surprising sprint, but Uma Musume ran out of breath and missed a spot on the podium by several horse-lengths: 6.7 - Fun, but not winning any trophies.
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